The Mission
by dixid
Summary: It was going to take more than just Roy to make sure Dick didn’t fall too far into being Batman.
1. Chapter 1

Prompt: Roy Harper/Ex-Robins, wasn't Roy lucky

Summary: It was going to take more than just Roy to make sure Dick didn't fall too far into being Batman.

Roy looked at the phone in his hand, seriously contemplating throwing it at the nearest wall. He let out a sigh of frustration and attempted to regroup his thoughts. It had only been a few weeks since his best friend took up the mantle of the Bat, but already Roy could feel Dick slipping away from him. He supposed that being Batman was synonymous with being a cold unfeeling bastard, but he never expected the change to occur so soon.

The phone call from Dick canceling plans to take Lian to the Zoo had been the final straw. It wasn't the fact this was the first cancellation of this trip, Roy understood the job often had to take priority over all else. But each successive call canceling had taken on a cooler tone than the last. In fact all of Roy's recent communications with Dick had him feeling like he was talking to a stranger. A rude, arrogant stranger. He had made a promise to Dick back when they were Teen Titans. He would never let Dick become like Bruce, consumed by his other identity. The problem was that he had no idea how to stop that from happening. How do you help someone who doesn't know they need help? It was almost as if he needed to gather all of Dick's friends and family and stage an intervention. And then suddenly there it was; the perfect answer. Not an intervention exactly, that approach probably wouldn't work when dealing with Batman. He'd probably just knock them all out with nerve gas and then leave. But he could recruit another person to help save Dick. Because it was going to take more than just himself to ensure this mission was a success. He needed someone sneaky. Someone who could coerce Dick into backing away from the edge before he fell into the never-ending pit of darkness and angst that being Batman seemed to require. Someone like a Robin. That was it! Roy needed a Robin. Or rather the most recent ex-Robin, he thought, shaking his head again at his friend's recent actions and the change in Robins. Roy knew just how to find that particular Robin. Wasn't he lucky?


	2. Chapter 2

Prompt: DCU, Roy Harper/Barbara Gordon, "Are you ready to let me in?"

Roy laid his hand against the security panel and tired not to roll his eyes. Retina scans and fingerprint scans? If they demanded a blood sample next, he was leaving. He'd just beg Dinah to ask Oracle for the information he needed. Still, if anyone had a right to feel the need for extra security on their front door, it was Barbara. He was only surprised that she didn't have her friends micro-chipped for security purposes. Or maybe she did, and he didn't qualify as a friend?

He left off that thought as the comm panel lit up.

"Roy?"

"Are you ready to let me in?" he asked.

The door swung open and Barbara motioned for him to enter.

"What can I do for you?" she asked.

"I need to contact Robin, or rather Red Robin."

"About a mission?"

He hedged. "It's a mission, but it's not cape related."

"At least not _my_ cape", he added.

Barbara smirked, "You don't wear a cape. So you're looking for Red Robin to recruit him for your mission to save Dick from himself?"

Roy looked at her in stunned disbelief. "How do you know about that?"

"I'm Oracle" she said, shrugging her shoulder. As if that should answer everything, but in a way, it did.

"So will you tell me how to contact him?"

That seemed to deflate her mood a bit. "No, that won't do you any good. He's avoiding everyone in the Bat family right now. But I can try to get a message through to him, and ask him to contact you. I'm not sure he will, but there's always a chance he might."

"Thanks. At this point, I'll take what I can get", said Roy.

As turn turned to leave he heard her say, "Maybe you can save both of them."


	3. Chapter 3

Prompt: DCU, Tim Drake/author's choice, "I never meant it to be like this"

Tim rechecked the address that Oracle had provided and then quickly pushed the doorbell before he could change his mind. He'd been wavering on whether or not to answer the request for assistance. Oracle had provided any details of the mission. Just a brief note saying it required skills that only he possessed, and an address. On one hand, he didn't want to be pulled away from his quest of finding Bruce. However he'd hit a dead end in his investigation, and didn't particularly feel like wandering aimlessly around Europe any longer. He still had contacts that were going to get in touch with him if anything new turned up. His reluctance came from the fact that Roy was Dick's best friend, and Tim wasn't on the best terms with Dick right now.

"I never meant it to be like this" he thought to himself. Gotham needed Batman, and Tim knew that Dick was the best choice for the cowl. He just wished that what was good for Gotham wasn't so painful for him. Dick wasn't supposed to become Batman and then fire him. He was supposed to become Batman, and be Tim's partner. Just until Bruce came back, he thought, still unwilling to even consider that his mentor might be gone for good.

Tim's silent reflection was interrupted when he heard footsteps from within, coming towards the door. He resigned himself to disappointment that neither his investigation, nor his relationship with Dick was going the way he'd wanted. Once this mission was over he would start trying to reassemble what was left of his life. But until then he'd do what he could to help Red Arrow's mission.


	4. Chapter 4

**Prompt: DCU, Roy/Tim, the difference in their mentors **

Roy heard the doorbellring as he put away the last of the supplies they used to create Lian's latest science project. Or tried to create, he supposed. It certainly hadn't turned out looking the way it did in the book. He's had to search the internet later and see if he could find out what went wrong. When did they start requiring homework for parents anyway?

He grabbed his wallet and hurried toward the door to pay for the pizza. There was no way they were eating anything cooked in a kitchen covered in goo from a failed science experiment.

He pulled the door back and was stopped in his tracks by the sight of a dark haired young man dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with a backpack slung over one shoulder.

"You're not the pizza guy" he said, as if that wasn't obvious to the stranger in the hallway.

The teen raised a single eyebrow, questioningly and asked. "Do you always answer your door without checking to see who it is? That's not smart. You should have better security protocols."

"Robin?" questioned Roy. As if a guy not trained by the Bat would be questioning his security measures, or lack thereof. A normal guy would be asking what toppings he'd ordered on the pizza.

Robin's eyes tightened slightly as if remembering something deeply painful. "Tim", he corrected.

"Sorry, I wasn't certain I'd hear from you." Roy said as he ushered Tim into the apartment

"I had some free time."

Roy wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. He wanted to ask since when did a Robin have free time? But he needed Tim's help, and didn't want to piss him off, so he settled for offering Tim a drink.

After opening the soda Roy handed him, Tim asked "What did you need my help with?" Before he could respond the doorbell sounded again. By the time he returned to the kitchen Lian was sitting at the table with Tim, apparently outlining the mission.

"And that's why Daddy needs your help," she was saying, "to keep Uncle Dick from being gloomy and sad."

Tim glanced up at Roy, as if looking for confirmation that this was in fact his mission. "You briefed your kid on the mission?"

Roy was taken aback; he hadn't said anything about his mission to his daughter.

"Daddy talks out loud to himself," Lian giggled. "Aunt Dinah says it's because he's alone too much, with no one his own age to play with." That caused Tim to join Lian in laughter.

Without warning Roy's heart clenched remembering other times when his daughter shared a laugh at his expense with another dark haired, blue-eyed Robin. The emotion must have shown on his face. Tim stopped laughing and became serious once again.

"Is that really the mission you needed my help with? Because I don't think I'm the right person to help you."

He looked so forlorn and lost. For a brief moment Roy wanted to hug Tim and hold him until that pain in his eyes disappeared. Make everything better for him, like he did for Lian when she was sad. He didn't think Tim would appreciate the gesture. Most likely he'd end up with a batarang lodged in an inconvenient spot.

Rou attempted to get his thoughts in order as he set Lian up with dinner and her favorite DVD in the living room. When he came back into the kitchen Tim looked lost in contemplation.

"Why don't you think you're the right person to help me?" Roy asked.

"He didn't want to work with me, he fired me."

"He wanted you to be his partner, not his sidekick."

Tim leveled Roy with a glare that once again showed who his mentor had been. Luckily, Roy had been on the receiving end of those glares before, and his own mentor had taught him not to take Bat-glares too seriously.

Roy held up his hands in mock surrender, "Okay, I'll drop the subject." For now, he thought to himself, as he began outlining his plan to Tim.

It was beginning to look like he had not one ex-Robin to fix, but two.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Prompt: DCU, Batman!Dick, he still feels like a little kid playing dress-up in his father's clothes.

A singular quote keeps running through his mind. "Needs must will." He's long forgotten where he read the line, but the passage has stuck with him for years. It's a fitting description of his current life. When necessity compels, you do what you must. Not what you want, now what you wish for, but what you must.

He can think of a dozen places he'd rather be than this cold rooftop. Home, the Cave, the circus, at Roy's…

A dozen people he'd rather have at his side as the hours pass during this stakeout. Tim, Roy, Bru…he quickly squashes that thought. There's no use in wishing for things you can't have. If wishes came true, Damien would have been rendered mute hours ago, because Dick certainly wished Damien would shut up and quite whining.

That thought amuses him for a moment, and he makes a silent bet with himself that Damien would stomp his feet in aggravation if his voice went missing. He's a bigger brat than any toddler going through the terrible twos. God, he misses Tim.

He needs to find a way to break through and make Tim understand how much Dick needs his little brother with him right now. None of him calls or e-mails have been returned. He'd worry if Babs hadn't reassured him that Tim was safe, just avoiding him. She said to give it some time, and she was usually right about all things Tim-related. But he felt impatient to make things right.

Actually, he felt impatient with everything since assuming the Batman identity. He wondered if it wasn't a side effect of taking up the Cowl. More likely it was a side effect of the cape, which was currently trying to choke him to death. It took all his training not to reach up and loosen the damned thing. He hated this cape. He hated the cowl too, but at least it didn't try to strangle him. The cape threw off his balance. Moves he'd been doing for years suddenly felt clumsy, a feeling he wasn't accustom to as Nightwing. The cowl was heavy compared to his usual domino, but it wasn't actively trying to kill him.

He recalls a memory from early childhood. Sliding his legs into his father's old boots and attempting to walk in them. His mother and father had laughed at his silliness, but within a few steps he'd started to fall. Before he could tumble to the ground, his father had caught Dick and hoisted him up on his shoulders.

That's how the cape and cowl feel to Dick. He's dressed up in his father's clothes again, putting on a show. Only this time, there's no one to catch him when he falls.

A movement below catches his eye and he signals to Robin. The buy was going down just as he'd heard. It was time to get to work. After all, the show must go on.


End file.
